J. Joel Quadracci
Analyst · Jamie Clement
Thanks, Kelly, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to report that our performance was in line with our expectations. Full year 2013 net sales were $4.8 billion, as expected. Volume, price and revenue were in line with our fourth quarter expectations and due to a focused effort to improve productivity and aggressively manage cost, we saw sequential improvement over our third quarter performance. This resulted in 2013 full year adjusted EBITDA of $577 million. Our ability to generate strong free cash flow is critical to the success of our capital deployment strategy. I'm pleased to report that our 2013 annual recurring free cash flow of $380 million met our reported guidance of in excess of $360 million, continuing our track record of solid and consistent cash flow generation. As Kelly noted, we are amending our non-GAAP financial measures to now include free cash flow as opposed to recurring free cash flow, and John will speak to this transition later in the call. As always, we remain flexible and opportunistic in terms of our future plans for capital deployment, which include balancing our key priorities to invest in our business, pursue compelling acquisition opportunities, reduce debt and pension liabilities and return capital to our shareholders. During the year, we reduced our pension obligations by $191 million and since the close of Worldcolor acquisition in 2010, by a total of $360 million. I am pleased to report that we have met our 2013 year-end goal of reducing our underfunded pension liabilities, including multiemployer pension plans to less than $200 million. In addition, after the acquisition of Vertis, we continue to reduce our debt and as of December 31, 2013, our debt leverage ratio decreased to 2.44x within our targeted range of 2x to 2.5x. Slide 4 is a snapshot of our 2013 net sales by product line and geography as compared to 2009. From the comparative pie charts, you can see that as we have grown our company, we have diversified our offering. In 2009, magazine and catalogs were our largest product lines at 57% of total net sales, while retail inserts were just 8%. In 2013, magazines and catalogs decreased to 33% from total net sales while retail inserts grew to 26%. We will continue to diversify our offering and focus on clearly defining our value proposition to support the unique characteristics of our product lines. In retail inserts, for example, we now work with 18 out of the top 20 retailers in the United States. With our coast-to-coast national platform of 30 strategically located facilities in the U.S., we have the ability to version and produce distinctive retail insert formats closest to their final destination point. We could augment the insert with data-driven direct mail pieces to promote brand loyalty and engagement. In addition, through our Media Solutions offering, we can help our retail client connect their content to the web, tablet and mobile channels, develop workflow solutions to streamline content management and page assembly workflows, achieve cost savings through on site facilities management services and strategically plan and place media based on store locations and market analysis. Given the disruption taking place in the retail marketplace, we believe that our Media Solutions help position Quad/Graphics as a valued strategic partner. In addition, our in-store Marketing Solutions Group called Tempt in-store productions is another valuable resource for our retail clients. Tempt tells retailers and brand marketers of all kinds create enticing in-store marketing displays, including interactive elements. As you may have seen, Tempt just announced an enhancement to its creative and structural design capabilities with the launch of a North American Design Center North -- New Berlin, Wisconsin. The Design Center features a retail lab with a dedicated prototyping zone where clients can develop and test ideas to drive increased shopper engagement and revenue. This new design center is part of our global platform for serving national and multinational retailers' in-store marketing needs around the world from our facilities in the United States, as well as Europe and Latin America. Slide 5 is a summary of our 4 strategic goals, which we believe, will allow us to successful despite ongoing industry challenges. Our strategy to transform the industry is tailored by product line and geography, but is also driven by a common purpose to create value in 3 distinct ways. First, we maximize the revenue our clients derive from their marketing spend through media channel integration to create measurable client value. Channel integration is something that I spend a lot of time talking about with our clients in the marketplace. What I hear from our clients on a consistent basis is a growing concern around an ever changing media landscape and their ability to connect all channels together and impact consumer behavior. As a printer and media channel integrator, we have the tools and capabilities to help our clients navigate today's multichannel world by capitalizing on print's ability to complement and connect with other media channels. We do this by leveraging the power of print with data and analytics and leading edge technology to help our clients retain their existing customers and acquire new ones through higher brand visibility and improved response rates. The second key way we create value for our clients is based on our ability to minimize our clients' overall cost of production and distribution. This has become increasingly important because distribution and mailing costs typically represent the largest percentage of our clients' total cost of production. The U.S. Postal Service continues to face massive financial challenges, which it is attempting to overcome in large part with a sizable postage rate increase. On January 26, a 6% postage rate increase went into effect, which included the expected annual Consumer Price Index increase of nearly 1.7%, plus an additional emergency or exigent increase of 4.3%. The exigent increase was approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission as a temporary measure for the Postal Service to recoup revenue loss during the 2008 recession. The Postal Service claimed the economic downturn constituted an unforeseen condition that justified an increase above the CPI cap. The increase was to be phased out after roughly 2 years when the Postal Service recovered what it had lost. However, earlier this month, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which oversees legislation affecting the Postal Service advanced a bill to make the temporary emergency rate increase permanent. If approved by the Senate and subsequently by the House, this will create a new, higher baseline for all future rate increases. We opposed both the exigent decision and disagree with the rationale for the decision. The Postal Service's action show a fundamental disconnect with mailers and the mailing marketplace. We believe that the current increase should not be used as the new baseline as it will more than likely reduce demand in the near term, further exacerbating the Postal Service's financial challenges. Further, the committee's proposed legislation would weaken the Postal Regulatory Commission's rate-setting role, giving the Postal Service power to set rates in the future. We firmly believe that as a monopoly, the Postal Service should continue to have PRC oversight to ensure the rate-making process is open and fair. We have joined with a number of mailers to challenge the exigent rate decision in court. Additionally, we have made our opposition to the Senate legislation known through direct outreach to legislators and through our participation in the coalition for 21st Century Postal Service, the Affordable Mail Alliance, the Direct Marketing Association, the Association of Magazine Media and other industry coalitions working to provide affordable postage rates. Our message is clear: Congress needs to pass meaningful reforms that will provide the Postal Service with the authority to streamline operations, drive innovation and better manage health care cost to give it long-term financial stability. As an industry leader, we will continue to push for postal reforms while helping our clients capitalize on solutions that offset postage costs. Given the exigent increase, our co-mailing and co-mingling solutions have become even more important than ever to our clients and prospective clients. The co-mail process merges multiple magazine and catalog titles into a single mail stream to earn a sizable postal discounts. Co-mingling is similar, merging letter-size direct mail from multiple marketers into a single mail stream. The more volume we combine into a single mail stream, the greater the postage savings for our clients. One of our competitive advantages is our unique software that analyzes clients' incoming mail files from across our entire network, so we can optimize mail distribution plans by pairing the right client titles together based on delivery location and dates, among other data. Quad/Graphics is the co-mail volume leader in the industry. In 2013, we co-mailed approximately 5 billion mail pieces, including magazines, catalogs and letter-size mail. We will continue to look for innovative ways to generate co-mail savings for our clients. We have spent more than 3 decades building the technology and the platform to generate every savings opportunity possible, which is what our clients need most, right now. Our ability to select and successfully carry out industry consolidation opportunities represents the final component of our strategy to transform the industry and create value for our clients. Given the challenges facing the industry, we believe our modern and efficient manufacturing platform and financial strength provide us with a distinctive competitive advantage. Industry challenges began to accelerate with the 2008 recession, creating a reset in demand, significant excess capacity and ultimately consolidation opportunities like Worldcolor. The key issue has been the industry pricing pressures that come with excess capacity. These industry pressures are something we discuss on each of our investor calls, along with our strategy to invest in the productivity and efficiency of our manufacturing platform, consolidate facilities and transfer work to the most efficient equipment to offset these pressures. We believe that the industry is now at a tipping point and the acquisition of Vertis was the first example of that in the industry. At the end of the day, printers across our industry are producing the same work for fewer dollars, a challenge that the industry has had and will continue to have as it goes through this tipping point. Although the exact inflection point for our industry is uncertain, we have been and will continue to take advantage of compelling opportunities during this critical time in the industry. The good news for Quad/Graphics and our shareholders is that our strong financial position continues to provide us with the ability to capitalize on further consolidation opportunities. Since 2010, we have removed approximately 7 million square feet of industry capacity. Through these opportunities, we have and will continue to expand into new markets or add complementary capabilities and create significant efficiencies in our overall production and distribution process. A perfect example of this strategy was our 2013 acquisition of Vertis. We recently passed our one-year mark on this acquisition and the integration process is going well. I am proud of all the hard work by so many employees to advance the integration forward, and I'm pleased to report that we remain on track to achieve our integration goals. We are very satisfied with our decision to acquire Vertis, which expanded our position in retail inserts, direct marketing and in-store signage and displays thereby expanding our relationship with major retailers who are looking for help connecting print in a multichannel world. We remain confident in our integration process to drive future cost savings and improve the efficiency and productivity of our platform. Our second strategic goal focuses on maximizing operational and technological excellence. Due to a disciplined return on capital approach to investments, we believe, we have one of the most automated, efficient, modern manufacturing platforms in the industry. In addition, our commitment to lean enterprise, which reinforces our corporate culture of continuous process improvement, remains a high priority throughout our company and supports maintaining our position as a high-quality, low-cost producer in the industry. As a company, we've remained focused on training, education and development of our workforce, maintaining a disciplined approach to maximizing capacity utilization and productivity across our platforms and identifying sustainable cost reductions in both indirect labor and direct costs through a variety of means, including automation, efficient labor management, material waste reduction, total productive maintenance and expediting plant throughput. Our third strategic goal focuses on our ability to empower, engage and develop our employees to think and act like owners, and create solutions that advance the company's strategic goal. To help employees, we provide training and education programs throughout their careers. Much of this training is exclusively developed for our employees by our Quad/Education division along with our continuous improvement of safety groups. In addition, at a time of extreme disruption in the health care industry, we continue to invest in QuadMed to improve access to high-quality, cost-effective health care through a combination of on-site-insured clinics, telemedicine and workplace wellness and disease prevention programs for our employees and their dependents. Our fourth strategic goal is to enhance financial strength and create shareholder value. This strategy is centered on our ability to maximize free cash flow and earnings, maintain consistent financial policies to ensure a strong balance sheet and liquidity level, and retain the financial flexibility we need to strategically allocate and deploy capital. As we have said, our priorities for capital allocation will be adjusted based on prevailing circumstances in what we believe is best for shareholder value creation at any particular point in time. These priorities include divesting in our business, deleveraging the company's balance sheet through debt and pension reductions and returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend program. We are maintaining our dividend at the current level, and we will continue to evaluate increasing it in the future, as appropriate. Our next quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share will be payable on March 21, 2014 to shareholders of record as March 12, 2014. As it relates to our investment strategy, our plans have not changed. We continue to focus on strengthening the core of our business, which will allow us to grow in a disciplined approach in areas that include the compelling industry consolidation opportunities that I spoke of earlier, as well as opportunities to expand growing geographic markets in print products with higher growth potential. Our core product offering, which includes retail inserts, magazines, catalogs, books and directories fuels the company's ability to execute on acquisitions. During the fourth quarter, we welcomed Proteus Packaging into our family. Proteus is a designer and manufacturer of high-end paperboard packaging and a natural extension of our growing packaging business. Proteus offers creative packaging solutions for a wide variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, health and beauty, food and beverage, biotech, automotive, software and electronics. We also acquired Proteus' sister company Transpack, a company that specializes in industrial packaging and international logistics. Both companies are based in Wisconsin and have a combined net sales of approximately $35 million. In addition, at the beginning of this month, we closed on the acquisition of UniGraphic, a leading commercial and specialty printing company with annual revenue of approximately $45 million. UniGraphic has facilities in Boston and New York and offers commercial and specialty printing, in-store marketing and kitting and fulfillment solutions for a variety of industries, including arts and entertainment, education, financial, food, health care, mass media, pharmaceutical and retail. The acquisition of UniGraphic supports our strategy to invest in businesses with print product lines with higher growth potential, such as commercial and specialty in in-store marketing. With this acquisition, we strengthened and expanded our presence on the East Coast, and expanded our in-store marketing footprint to include both coasts, as well as the Midwest. This, combined with our operations in Poland and Latin America, enhances our ability to service national and multinational retailers, large format and in-store marketing needs around the world. It is important to note when reviewing opportunities by Proteus and UniGraphic [indiscernible] value driven approach to ensure that certain criteria are met before the opportunity is selected. This criteria includes making certain that there's a good strategic fit that the economics makes sense and will create value that the integration plan will be executable in a timely manner, and then after the acquisition, we'll retain the financial strength and flexibility we had prior to the acquisition. And, so I'd like to welcome all employees from Proteus, Transpac and UniGraphic to our Quad/Graphics family. And with that, I will now hand the call over to John who will present a more detailed financial review of 2013 followed by Dave Honan who will provide 2014 annual guidance.